Katharine Trendacosta

Last year, a scriptreader read 300 scripts for 5 studios, all the while taking notes on the problems and trends he saw. The number 1 problem? The story started too late in the script.

The scriptreader listed 37 frequently occurring problems, here are the top 20:

The story begins too late in the script

The scenes are void of meaningful conflict

The script has a by-the-numbers execution

The story is too thin

The villains are cartoonish, evil-for-the-sake-of-evil

The character logic is muddy

The female part is underwritten

The narrative falls into a repetitive pattern

The conflict is inconsequential, flash-in-the-pan

The protagonist is a standard issue hero

The script favors style over substance

The ending is completely anti-climactic

The characters are all stereotypes

The script suffers from arbitrary complexity

The script goes off the rails in the third act

The script's questions are left unanswered

The story is a string of unrelated vignettes

The plot unravels through convenience/contrivance

The script is tonally confused

The protagonist is not as strong as [he or she needs to] be

In a way, while the information about script problems is helpful, there's a ton more information included here. Like the fact that 270 of the scripts were written by male writer(s). Or that only 2 scripts took place in outer space. Or that the most common location for these films-in-waiting was "some anonymous small town," which just narrowly edged out its exact opposite, a place called "New York City."